Roland XV5080 (2080, JD-990 etc.) with DAW? VST counterparts?

[Caine123]

C&c = command and conquer

First thanks for all replies!
I got many vsts and also the uvi retro collect Ion and hypersonic2. Omnisphere etc. And i used Albino 3 so far as I thought it should have some older Character with many sound options. I sometimes Came close to the Charakter of the games. I also contacted Frank klepacki the compser and he listed his gear and it is like listed all the Hardware but mostly the Various modules of Roland + Expansion + some older zero g sample CDs.
So i dont have any Roland and checked some YouTube videos. He also told me that some sounds are presets and some user patches. After listening to some Sound Demos of the Roland modules he listed i heard with the drums. Synths etc some sounds he used and some Character of the game style.
The only Problem i See is that I of course have to get used to a Roland Module with daw?

Cause in a daw project with softsynths i can open a project and it recalls all presets and changes i made in the softsynths + i have a Software gui. With a Roland Module i have not these options do i? Or are there possibilities to Integration and use a Roland Software with in the daw to have the Various Instances of eg xv 5080 recalled when loading a project?

I didnt find a Video yet which Shows it maybe...

[BertKoor]

Cause in a daw project with softsynths i can open a project and it recalls all presets and changes i made in the softsynths + i have a Software gui. With a Roland Module i have not these options do i? Or are there possibilities to Integration and use a Roland Software with in the daw to have the Various Instances of eg xv 5080 recalled when loading a project?

Usually all midi tracks start with the nescessary bank & program changes and sometimes short sysex sequences to set up the patches. So you have total recall as I said earlier.

But the user patches you use need to be stored on the machine itself. That is a difference with VSTi's which allow all the detailed patch info to be stored in your DAW project. Not really a show-stopper I'd say...

[JCJR]

Yes storing the used presets in the hardware synth are easiest.

In the old days before plugin synths, some of the sequencers were written to work hand in hand with Universal Librarian programs. Universal Librarians were a beast to write and keep up to date. In some ways harder than writing sequencers. Every different model of synth used different sysex, and the librarian would ideally have an immense library of templates allowing it to talk to any synth a user might happen to have.

Every time a new synth was released, some poor soul would have to make a new template so the librarian could talk to the synth. It was wise to have the synth in hand for testing because the factory sysex documentation was written by functionally illiterate engineers. It was often difficult to read between the lines to discover what they really were trying to say.

So if a fella had good work habits, he would work on a song in the sequencer and edit/save patches in each synth. Then after the song is finished, in case he wants to revisit the song later, use the universal librarian to save the full state of all the synthesizers, and save the patch files in the same locations that you saved the sequencer project files for safekeeping.

Some synths had sysex convenient enough to embed the patch data in the silent countoff head of the song, but other synths required various handshaking and waits for successful patch transfer. Handshaking patch management is above the pay grade of a sequencer in playback mode. So I personally figured if its not practical to save all the patch data in each sequence, then it is not worth the bother of saving any synth's patch data inside the sequence itself.

There are probably still universal librarians in existance, dunno.

Nowadays you would work on the song recording an external synth as a midi track in your daw. Many hardware synths will play multiple midi tracks with different voices on different channels. And even midi aware mono or single channel only poly synths the same deal. Work in midi tracks as long as possible, because the midi is such a plastic easy medium for musical composition and refinement. Get the notes and expressiveness in midi for all the tracks, until you can hit play on the sequencer and hear the external synths playing about as you desire. Then possibly tweak each sound in each hardware synth. Sometimes tweaking the patch requires some editing of the midi track, making midi notes longer or shorter or different velocities or whatever to work best with the edited patch. A bit of iterative process between editing the patch. Then editing the midi again. Depending on how picky you happen to be.

After the song plays midi as good as it gets, when you are ready to mix, solo each midi track, and play the song recording the hardware synth to a computer audio track. If you have kewl outboard fx you have been using, for max flexibility record the dry synth and the wet outboard fx to different audio tracks so you have more mixdown options.

Then do eq and final polishing in the daw on the audio tracks, and mute those original midi tracks. After you finish your mix, the sound of each external synth is backed up in the song project file. So a year later, or 10 years later you can remix even if your old hardware synth had let out the smoke and gone to electronic heaven.

You only need the synth patch data if you want to change a sound or melody in your song and redo it from the ground up. So save patch dump files along with your archived song project.

Hope I'm not discouraging you from trying it. I actually like working that way, and softsynths eventually suffer the same fate. I have a big box of nice sounding softsynths that went to software heaven, never to be heard again on modern systems. You even need to be careful that you have full-length dubs of all your song tracks in wav files or aifc files, because there will come a day that no software will be able to understand your song project file format.

In the past most hardware synths couldn't store more than a few user patches, so you eventually had to back up old patch banks to make room for new patches.

Unless there is something about the sound of the XV or JV DAC you just can't live without, the Roland FA has HUNDREDS of user patch locations. Presumably the Integra also has hundreds of user patch locations, but I don't know.

Unless I start using the fa more, maybe I will never fill up all the user patch locations. And you don't have to screw with sysex, unless yer crazy or something. The fa data is all on an sd card. Just pull the sd card from the fa, insert in pc, and copy the contents for safekeeping. Easy peasy. Two years from now if I want to revert the fa to todays settings, I just copy the saved files to a new sd card and pop it in the fa. Or use the same sd card, as long as I back it up first.

[zvenx]

If you find one please let me know. At least once every six months I go on ebay and almost buy one ..I still have my working JV-2080 that still sounds great, but I dont use it anymore.. convenience of software just too nice and easy.
When Roland started their software plugouts, there are three pieces of gear I hope they eventually get too. Jupiter 8, S-760 and the XV-5080.
then I would die a happy man
rsp

[Hank the Knife]

Since you are unfamiliar with hardware and, obviously, for all XV/JV users. Roland XV/JV masterclass:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov03/a ... rclass.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec03/a ... rclass.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan04/a ... rclass.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/a ... rclass.htm

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Not clearly the same as the modules, but Omnisphere 2 is better is so many aspects. It was made by Eric Persing, the key person behind all those gears.

I respectfully disagree. Firstly yes Eric did presets for XV series but he did not do EVERY SINGLE preset. Secondly these instruments are praised (still today) for their sound character. Third - you can do 20 000 56893, 54354354 presets with XV as well

I am aware of what trendemous big library Omnisphere is. But i am sucker so i prefer 200-300 usable sounds over 50gb of everything/iamgodeverything. I prefer things which are done to do one thing not every thing.


To this date i have not found any replacement for XV series. If one need such sound then XV need to be ordered. Maybe it is best to have both because Omni have some really cool sounds which are not inside XV such as cool drums. And that super deep synthesis engine.

These days i am looking for integra 7. So try to learn about that as well. It is kinda retrospective of all XV sounds from past / VA synth engine / and Supernatural engine.

Kind regards

we actually agree on every word about something for the first time

[Caine123]

one quick question, i try to check some modules out in my city which are for sale 2nd hand, which of those are SYNTHS? and how is programming them? can i also program them via editor (waveforms etc. like a softsynth) and which of those are rompler?

[murnau]

Got a XV5050 last year for something around $200 (which is not more then some plugin cost) you can even run the MIDI under WIN via USB (patched Fantom-driver). There is really no need to wait for a VST if you want the original sound. Of course you can't edit the sounds within your DAW as the editor is stande-alone. If that's a no-go for you?

[Caine123]

Got a XV5050 last year for something around $200 (which is not more then some plugin cost) you can even run the MIDI under WIN via USB (patched Fantom-driver). There is really no need to wait for a VST if you want the original sound. Of course you can't edit the sounds within your DAW as the editor is stande-alone. If that's a no-go for you?

thanks mate! im such an idiot about hardware, i hope to finally see some modules this weekend here at some people who sell it. i had a MC505, a korg unit in the past but had no idea about synthesis etc. so i only have experience about softsynths (how to edit the sounds etc.) but i dunno which of the stuff i mentioned XV5080, JV-1080/2080, JD-990 etc.) are ROMplers (where you sadly cannot edit the sound itself like Hypersonic2 etc.) and which are FULL synths. @hardwaresynths, you can only edit the presets/sounds in the hardware itself?

[T-CM11]

Got a XV5050 last year for something around $200 (which is not more then some plugin cost) you can even run the MIDI under WIN via USB (patched Fantom-driver). There is really no need to wait for a VST if you want the original sound. Of course you can't edit the sounds within your DAW as the editor is stande-alone. If that's a no-go for you?

thanks mate! im such an idiot about hardware, i hope to finally see some modules this weekend here at some people who sell it. i had a MC505, a korg unit in the past but had no idea about synthesis etc. so i only have experience about softsynths (how to edit the sounds etc.) but i dunno which of the stuff i mentioned XV5080, JV-1080/2080, JD-990 etc.) are ROMplers (where you sadly cannot edit the sound itself like Hypersonic2 etc.) and which are FULL synths. @hardwaresynths, you can only edit the presets/sounds in the hardware itself?

All of them are full synths.
I see that you use FL Studio. IMO it's one of the worst DAWs for controlling hardware synths - no midi pass-through, no CC/sysex recording, ...
With the Integra and its VST editor you might have total recall, but I can't say for sure because I've never tested it myself (in FL). The audio still needs to be recorded in the end though, there's no streaming (afaik).
You also might want to check out Legacy Korg M1 & Wavestation for those 90s sounds you're after.

[bill45]

Did they ever come out with a pc editor for the integra 7?

[Hank the Knife]

@Nopey

[mztk]

uh there are twin threads for this ?
here's a VST plugin (Synthedit 32bit) that has 'PCM'(embedded GM sf2)
with synth wavforms, vaguely based on LA synthesis (meh, it's roughcut,
but it's free)

https://app.box.com/s/9zg5w7bjvsu8za0j1whha72uavbpeot7

[Dewdman42]

I have an XV-5080 that I have been wanting to ressurrect and start using again, haven't used it in a long time. As others have said, it definitely has a certain character to it that isn't replaced by software plugins. I have a collection of S series sample libs too back from the old days...and they can load into the XV, but the CD load speed is VERY slow, FYI. I believe you can load them via the memory card option, but I can't remember now.

Anyway, I am curious what kind of editor/librarians are floating around out there to support this unit? I guess Midiquest might support it, but that product is expensive and flakey. Are there some dedicated software for it now?

[kmonkey]

Not clearly the same as the modules, but Omnisphere 2 is better is so many aspects. It was made by Eric Persing, the key person behind all those gears.

I respectfully disagree. Firstly yes Eric did presets for XV series but he did not do EVERY SINGLE preset. Secondly these instruments are praised (still today) for their sound character. Third - you can do 20 000 56893, 54354354 presets with XV as well

I am aware of what trendemous big library Omnisphere is. But i am sucker so i prefer 200-300 usable sounds over 50gb of everything/iamgodeverything. I prefer things which are done to do one thing not every thing.


To this date i have not found any replacement for XV series. If one need such sound then XV need to be ordered. Maybe it is best to have both because Omni have some really cool sounds which are not inside XV such as cool drums. And that super deep synthesis engine.

These days i am looking for integra 7. So try to learn about that as well. It is kinda retrospective of all XV sounds from past / VA synth engine / and Supernatural engine.

Kind regards

we actually agree on every word about something for the first time

Matte i have not heard from you for a very long time. Yeah i can recall furious nonsense from both sides(especially from my side) but let us forget that. We are getting older and older and some things we did we can not change in past but maybe in future?

To tell you the truth i don't have time to read all replies like i used to have. I hope you are good and finally healthy and making fine music (Reason or something else? I've found my workflow within Live and hardware).

I would love to see XV in VST. I even had idea to sample 5080 for my personal use and use it within Kontakt but filters from Kontakt simply does not cut it. And FX are way mor edifferent and better on Roland side. With more options and variations.

Kind regards